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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27187220">outsider</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmonaughtt/pseuds/cosmonaughtt'>cosmonaughtt</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>🎈2020 🎈 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danny Phantom, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aizawa accidentally adopts Danny without realizing it until it's too late, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Body Horror, Chaotic Good Danny Phantom, Everyone in this is ending up super chaotic and feral™, Ghosts, Ghosts Are Dead People Butch, Mineta Minoru is Expelled from U.A. High School, Multi, My first step into romance so don't judge, Parental Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Post USJ pre Sports Festival, Tired Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, technically a rewrite, vigilante Danny Phantom also</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 03:48:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,269</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27187220</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmonaughtt/pseuds/cosmonaughtt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny ends up in the world of My Hero Academia, with two days of his memory gone. Fortunately for him, he’s not the only ghost around, but unfortunately for him, the whole world seems hellbent on killing his new classmates.</p>
<p>A new kid comes to U.A., a transfer from America. He’s got a bit of a weird quirk, but with everything in U.A., Izuku thinks he’ll fit in just fine.</p>
<p>(REWRITE OF WILLOW TREE)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead &amp; Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton &amp; Midoriya Izuku, Danny Fenton/Midoriya Izuku, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>🎈2020 🎈 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1590310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>556</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Mixed_Fics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay so fun fact, I'm not dead.</p><p>Not-so-fun fact, I probably won't update again until December-ish, maybe late November?</p><p>Eh, school. What can I say?</p><p>ANYWAY this is a re-write of Willow Tree. A bit of a new plot, but Danny is still keeping most of his powers a secret and still has two days of his memory mysteriously missing?? What???</p><p>Also yeah the ship is kinda endgame I guess. I might try and experiment a bit with a bit of romance in my story. We'll see ;D</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>He can’t keep his knee from bouncing as the car rolls up to U.A.’s campus.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny never took Aizawa to be much of a driver, he thought the teacher would be more of a public transportation sort of guy, but that morning they woke up on his first day of class at U.A., the teacher grabbed car keys and proved Danny’s assumptions wrong.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The uniform wasn’t uncomfortable, at least, though he prefers to just wear a simple t-shirt and jeans, but he wasn’t in Kansas anymore-- scratch that, he wasn’t in flippin’ </span>
  <em>
    <span>America</span>
  </em>
  <span> anymore, mind his own </span>
  <em>
    <span>world</span>
  </em>
  <span>-- and such a uniform at the best Hero school in all of Japan would be downright disrespectful</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Right...  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The last week has passed so quickly, Danny had barely a second to take it all in, but here he was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“--You good?” Aizawa asks from the driver’s seat. Probably said his name, too, maybe more, but Danny didn’t catch anything except the last bit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny nods, swallowing a bit of something. Not-bile, but nerves. Anxiety.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’d never been a </span>
  <em>
    <span>new kid</span>
  </em>
  <span> before, his family never left Amity Park, so he never had to experience the horror of being paraded to the front of the classroom and introduced to everyone. He’d seen it happen, time and time again, and knew that no one </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> thinking about how uneven his tie might be, or that one of his shoes was close to being untied, but now the thoughts were filling his brain, and, great, the nerves he tried to swallow were back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa sighs, turning the car off. In the past week, Danny had been witness to the man go from two casts to one cast to none from something that happened </span>
  <em>
    <span>before-during-afte</span>
  </em>
  <span>r he arrived in this new world, so most of Aizawa’s life had been pretty open. Especially when he was staying in the man’s home office space that was turning slowly into a small bedroom. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa clears his throat. “My students-- your classmates-- they can be a lot at once. I’ll try and keep them off you, but you remember your cover story?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Right</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Even though Danny hadn’t spared the true details of his situation in that hospital room after he was found, he still had a cover story for why he took a late test and got accepted into U.A. in secret. He was an American transfer student who applied the first day technically, but due to a villain attack that hit his family, he would miss the first month of school before transferring in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not the </span>
  <em>
    <span>truth</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Not that a hero had found him passed out on U.A. campus with no way he could’ve snuck on; that he had a lot of injuries that were quickly healed up and a two-day emptiness in his memories that he was really trying to not think about because it freaked him out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes.” Danny says after a brief moment of silence, to not worry the hero. “My mom got hurt in a villain attack and I couldn’t come to Japan during the investigation and court stuff… Oh, and I can’t legally talk about it because the American justice system sucks.” He repeats it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa nods, not even commenting on Danny’s last bit, and he could’ve sworn there was the smallest hint of a smirk under all that dark hair. The hero had been intimidating when he first met him; but because Aizawa had a spare </span>
  <em>
    <span>futon</span>
  </em>
  <span> in his home office at the time, Danny had become his unofficial ward. Though it was probably going to be a permanent situation, by the looks of it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good.” They get out of the car, and Danny swings his bag over his shoulder. It’s not the familiar purple bag he had at home, but it’s a nice soft grey color with a lightning bolt design on it, one of the few bags at the store that didn’t have any sort of hero paraphernalia or design on it, so it was his only option. “I’m not normally </span>
  <em>
    <span>late</span>
  </em>
  <span> to class, but we will arrive a few minutes til the end of homeroom, so they won’t pester you with questions the moment you breathe.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They can’t be </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> bad, can they? Danny smiles in response. This is the nicest teacher he’s had since… probably elementary school, the middle school teachers turned a blind eye towards bullying just like his old high school’s did, even though there were also </span>
  <em>
    <span>ghosts</span>
  </em>
  <span> in high school.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, it seems he can’t escape ghosts in this world, either, because after taking one step into the building, Danny feels the familiar cold air rise in his throat, but he swallows it down to hide it. He doesn’t need to explain to the ever-vigilant teacher-hero why suddenly they could both see his breath like the room dropped to freezing temperatures.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Just his luck, huh?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He flinches at the sound of Aizawa’s voice outside the door. Even though he was told some of his students called him the formal </span>
  <em>
    <span>Aizawa-sensei, </span>
  </em>
  <span>the teacher wouldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>ignore</span>
  </em>
  <span> Danny if he didn’t follow suit. Culture shock is weird, and suddenly understanding the Japanese language doesn’t mean he suddenly knows everything about its history.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or, well, most recent history. He still has a good chunk of </span>
  <em>
    <span>history of japan</span>
  </em>
  <span> memorized, but that history might only apply to his world, for all he knows.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know I told you that there would be some big news coming today, and-- no, it is not Sports Festival related. We’re having a new student join us today.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A beat of silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then the classroom erupts, and Danny has to hold back going invisible from the nerves and the shock.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Quiet down,” the teacher’s voice cuts through the cacophony of everything happening around him. “There were a few reasons why he couldn’t join us until more recently… He can do his best to explain it to you if he wants, but there are legal things he cannot say, so do </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> pressure him.” Aizawa looks through the door to Danny, motioning him to come in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny takes a deep breath, swallows a nervous hiccup, and walks in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So, introductions weren’t the </span>
  <em>
    <span>end</span>
  </em>
  <span> of the world, at least. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sure, he stumbled a bit. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Where are you from in America? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Illinois. No one knows what Illinois is.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>How do you speak Japanese so well? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Been, uh, speaking it since he was born. His family visits Japan a lot (no, they don’t, liar) so he picked it up naturally as a kid.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>What’s your quirk?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That, he had to smirk at, and just say… </span>
  <em>
    <span>You’ll see.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Cause the irony is that they might not actually see it, because one of the powers he gave away voluntarily was his invisibility, and, well… No one will probably get the joke, especially since there was a fully-invisible girl already present in class, but he tried. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But now he’s trying to hide from his classmates, because, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wow</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he wasn’t as ready to answer the rest of the questions that Aizawa prevented them from asking </span>
  <em>
    <span>just</span>
  </em>
  <span> yet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Plus, he had his own little… investigation to do.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny knows there are different types of ghosts, not just the simple </span>
  <em>
    <span>classes</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>threats </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>dangers</span>
  </em>
  <span> his parents classify them as, but because he is a ghost, he can just. Tell. He didn’t get the words until after he met Sidney and they began sharing the locker, but ghosts formed differently after death.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ghosts he fought were </span>
  <em>
    <span>ghosts. </span>
  </em>
  <span>They were the ecto-sustained beings that formed after death, particularly quite violent ones. Better words to use would be a </span>
  <em>
    <span>poltergeist</span>
  </em>
  <span>, which, well, Danny technically was as well, wasn’t he? Or something.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Halfa is just a simpler term to use, even if the other ghosts say it with such malice in their tone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But there are ghosts like Sidney that weren’t entirely ecto-based, but were more spirit-based.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And that’s what he sensed, earlier.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was easy to track down, especially because he could go invisible and walk by students without being outed immediately as the new kid. Plus, he gets a bit more of a map of the school he’s going to be at for--</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>-- well, there’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>thought. </span>
  </em>
  <span>So much had happened, he didn’t even know how long he would be here. Or when he would go home.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luckily for him, a haunting voice broke him out of his thoughts.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Ah, geez, another student? How hard is it to protect a kid from getting killed these days?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny glances to his side. He’s still invisible, but he feels the breath rise up from his throat, and standing next to him is most definitely a spirit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She doesn’t reflect how she died, but her hair is pulled back into a low bun, and she wears a dark turtleneck and a long skirt. Glasses sit on the bridge of her nose, and she looks him up and down, her mind slowly processing Danny.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“How old were you?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The language of the dead seems to be universal, at least, Danny can tell, by the familiar clicks and bits of static and other unsettling noises that come with it. His voice is a little rough as he speaks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Oh, I’m, um, I’m fourteen.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ghost-librarian sighs. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“I knew that allowing that All Might to work here could lead to unnecessary danger, but since I’m </span>
  </em>
  <span>dead</span>
  <em>
    <span>, I can’t exactly…”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She pauses. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She looks Danny up and down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“You’re not… What are you, young man?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> Danny? Well, isn’t that the question of the year? He glances nervously as two students-- oh, it’s the boy he sits behind, and a girl with brown hair cut down to her chin-- pass him, not knowing he was in conversation with the ghost of a librarian who worked for the school?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or something like that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m Danny.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Well, it is very nice to meet you, you may call me Dai, but that doesn’t answer my question of </span>
  </em>
  <span>what</span>
  <em>
    <span> are </span>
  </em>
  <span>you… </span>
  <em>
    <span>You are dead but also alive, at the same time. Have quirks evolved to be this complicated since I died?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny shrugs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“... You should be getting to class. If you </span>
  </em>
  <span>are</span>
  <em>
    <span> a student here. But I am going to keep an eye on you, Danny-san.” </span>
  </em>
  <span>She says, before fading through the wall behind her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny sighs. He knows that isn’t the end of Ms. Dai, and probably, if she’s around, other spirits that might haunt U.A.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He glances around for a security camera before finding a blindspot, turning visible, and rushing back to class.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya Izuku does not know </span>
  <em>
    <span>how</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but the new kid managed to avoid the entire class for the entire lunch period. No one had witnessed a glance of him in the cafeteria, or even him </span>
  <em>
    <span>leaving</span>
  </em>
  <span> the room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could have some sort of studying or tutoring session, from missing a month of school, but even that doesn’t sit right with Izuku.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not a lot of things sit right with Izuku about the new kid, but he would never, </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span>, say that aloud to someone. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(Of course, rumors are already starting. That Monoma kid in 1-B probably started them, and they’ve already gained a little traction in the first day of him being here. Fenton was rescued from villains, Fenton is a villain here on a reform program, he’s some hero’s bastard kid who would claim heritage if his demands weren’t met by his absent parent, he’s some sort of </span>
  <em>
    <span>social </span>
  </em>
  <span>experiment.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku doesn’t believe any of them.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He notices as Fenton manages to make it into the classroom with barely a minute before their Foundational Heroics class starts, and he takes a nervous breath as he finally gets to the seat behind Izuku and relaxes, just a little bit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There isn’t time for anyone to look at him and ask, </span>
  <em>
    <span>where the hell did you go</span>
  </em>
  <span>, before All Might bursts into the door. Izuku wishes that he could turn his head around and see the look on Fenton’s face at the sight of </span>
  <em>
    <span>the </span>
  </em>
  <span>All Might, he is known everywhere around the world as the Symbol of Peace of Japan, after all, there’s no way Fenton didn’t hear about him, right…?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Most of the students have their cases nearby of their hero costumes, and Izuku’s is nicely fixed up (finally) by the Support Department students who reinforced his mother’s original design more. A small square of the original fabric was sewn on the underside of his costume where his heart was; a reminder of his mother’s love and care put into the original design.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Fenton doesn’t have one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> replacing the twentieth spot, after all; after the grape-haired kid was kicked out within the first week for harassing the girls at school. But he doesn’t have a case, only a small bag, which looked like the one that their gym uniforms came in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hm. Must not be ready yet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good afternoon, you hero-wannabes!” All Might’s booming voice demands attention, immediately. “Today’s exercise is going to be pretty simple, so go get dressed and follow me out to city beta for some combat training!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ah, combat training. Probably the last bit of it they would be getting before the Sports Festival. It was pretty soon. Izuku needs to work on his quirk---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As the pro-hero leaves the room, the students begin trailing out immediately to the locker rooms. Izuku stands up and tries to stop muttering to himself after the death-glare from Kacchan, but he’s stopped by someone tugging on his sleeve.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, it’s just Fenton.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He doesn’t look like he’s frozen in awe after seeing All Might, like Izuku expected. Instead, it’s a deer in the headlights sort of look, where he doesn’t seem to be too sure of what’s going on, and obviously uncomfortable. Izuku knows that feeling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(He still gets it, sometimes, at U.A., when he feels like someone is being </span>
  <em>
    <span>too nice</span>
  </em>
  <span> to a person like h i m.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you alright, Fenton?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The boy flinches, slightly, at the sound of his name, but he shakes it off quickly. “Uh, yeah. Sorry. Where are we going, exactly?” He shuffles the gym bag around nervously in his hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, you probably don’t know where we’re going, huh?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny sheepishly shakes his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s kinda intimidating on your first day, but it’s not as big as it seems. O-on the inside, that is.” He begins to walk towards the door, with Fenton following close behind. Iida had been instantly out the door with All Might; only a few students rounded out the back, which includes Fenton and Izuku.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s bigger than my old school, for sure.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His old junior high. Aizawa-sensei said that he couldn’t talk about a lot of things for why he was suddenly at U.A., but he could be allowed to talk about </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>, right? Or what was it they called it in America?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What was it like?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Smaller. Way smaller. Older, too.” The new kid doesn’t seem too nervous, anymore, though there’s still a bit of the deer-in-the-headlights kind of look in his eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Actually, U.A’s a lot older than it looks! But it had a recent remodeling a while ago, I think, which updated a lot of their buildings.” Izuku catches himself immediately. “Sorry, I just know a lot about this place.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s fine.” They’re near the door to the locker room. “It’s cool that you know that, actually.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A-ah, thanks? I guess? Is that the right way to respond?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fenton smiles. It’s a nice smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku thinks that Fenton is going to fit in at U.A. just fine.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“All Might-sensei, will this be a repeat of the first Foundational Heroics class?” Iida asks immediately when everyone is gathered at the city entrance in their outfits (sans Fenton, who is only wearing the school uniform at the moment, with no support items.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It must be some sort of strong quirk that he doesn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> support items for.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All Might smiles at Iida’s eagerness. “You are correct, young Iida! I think it is important to track progress as you train, and what better way to understand how you grow than comparing new results to an old benchmark!” He smiles in Fenton’s direction. “And now that we have twenty students, the odds will be split out much fairer.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Right, Yayorozu had been saddled by herself for the first test at first, though Iida had been kind enough to offer to be her partner. They still had no match against Todoroki, but it was the thought that counted, right?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fenton shrunk under the gaze of All Might and the rest of his classmates.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Will the groups be the same?” Urarka asks, raising her hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No! Just like the real world, it will be randomized again!” He pulls out the familiar cup of sticks that he used last time, to draw teams.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hopefully this time, Izuku wouldn’t break his body with One for All. Maybe he could find a way to repeat what happened at USJ and use the quirk without breaking any of his bones this time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or he could just use the finger trick, if all else fails. </span>
</p>
<p><em><span>Just don’t be against Kacchan again, don’t be against Kacchan again…</span></em> <em><span>or WITH him. That’d probably be </span></em><span>worse</span><em><span>, actually… </span></em><span>Izuku nervously pulls his lot, and Fenton next to him pulls one as well.</span></p>
<p>
  <span>They’re not on the same team, it seems. Izuku will just get to watch Fenton use his quirk and analyse it in the monitoring room. He hadn’t been able to do that with anyone else their first day because he went first and </span>
  <span>almost died </span>
  <span>passed out after his round, so hopefully he’d be able to do that with Fenton.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku was partnered with Tsuyu. They smile awkwardly at each other.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He doesn’t know </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> to say, because the last time they worked together… Well, Izuku understands Tsuyu’s quirk very well, and he knew they could work well together, at least. It was just unfortunate their first pair-up was against actual villains hellbent on killing them and not something simple as this Foundational Heroics exercise.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Now, as a refresher! You are split off into groups of </span>
  <em>
    <span>heroes</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>villains.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” All Might motions to the building next to them. It’s a different building than the one they used last time. Probably a different floor plan, too. “The villains will be defending a paper-mache bomb, while the heroes will be infiltrating and trying to capture the villains or touch the bomb before the time is up! There will be a five-minute head start for the villains to set up, and the heroes to plan… But I’m sure you all will come up with amazing things!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku smiles; even though he and Uraraka worked well together, he still ended up passed out. Hopefully that wouldn’t come true this time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell</span>
  </em>
  <span> did Danny get himself into?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Long time no read! Hahaha, I uploaded "Wolfwalker" as a little thing that came to mind and couldn't leave me, and now I've finally updated "outsider".</p>
<p>I'm really hoping the interactions between Izuku and Danny feel geniune, and I live for a Uraraka &amp; Danny friendship now. The relationships are tagged, I'm trying my best to write a lil romance into this because I think it'd be cute and fun!</p>
<p>Anyway uhhhh hope y'all enjoy! See you probably by Christmas time haha</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Danny regretted a lot of things in his half-life.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe he should’ve told his parents sooner about what happened after the accident. They would’ve understood, right? They did accept him when they found out with that Freakshow incident, but… He didn’t get to tell them. So it didn’t count.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(He wasn’t ready for them to </span>
  <em>
    <span>know.</span>
  </em>
  <span> When he does tell them, it’s on his own time.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He regretted the fight he had last with Sam and Tucker. It’d been how many weeks since he first ended up getting turned around in the Ghost Zone? One and a </span>
  <em>
    <span>half? </span>
  </em>
  <span>And here he was, somehow, in a different world, where people just </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> powers and he decided that the best offer would be to take the offer from the “heroes” who saved him and offered him protection under the guise of being enrolled as a student at their school.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He glanced at the lot he’d drawn. It was a small rubber ball with a giant letter</span>
  <em>
    <span> E</span>
  </em>
  <span> written in permanent marker. The girl he’d been partnered up with gave him an understanding smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Fenton!” It was weird to hear his last name all the time used so </span>
  <em>
    <span>casually, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and not as a threat from Dash, but this was Japan and it was just how the society worked. “I’m Uraraka Ochako! It’s nice to meet you!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You, too.” Danny tried to force a smile back. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their teacher, All Might-- who was probably the size of Pariah Dark himself, dear </span>
  <em>
    <span>god</span>
  </em>
  <span>-- cleared his throat as everyone found their partners. It was time to draw the first fighters.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He tried to not look the spirit of the woman who hovered near All Might in the eye. He could definitely feel her looking at him, but he wanted to avoid contact until he could be safe to not accidentally expose himself in the process. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Team </span>
  <em>
    <span>E</span>
  </em>
  <span> will be the heroes against…” Danny’s heart (or what was left of it) dropped at the sound of his team name, and he held his breath as All Might pulled the next lot out of the little box he’d been carrying around. “Team </span>
  <em>
    <span>A!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Get ready, you wannabes, and get going to the first building! Villains head in and get set up, you’ve got five minutes!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny glanced around and saw that Team A was the green-haired boy who helped him get to the locker room in the first place and another girl who had green hair past her shoulder, and that they were both walking to the first building, talking to each other. As both teams passed All Might, they received their equipment-- two ear pieces to talk to their teammates, and the hero team was given tape that they could wrap around the villains to “capture” them if they could get it wrapped around the opposing team. The villain team was given the fake bomb to carry as well, and the girl carried it carefully while trying to listen to </span>
  <em>
    <span>whatever</span>
  </em>
  <span> the boy was saying--</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>-- God, Danny needs to learn </span>
  <em>
    <span>names</span>
  </em>
  <span> of his classmates. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As soon as Team A was in the building, the five-minute head start began. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, this is gonna be great!” Uraraka said, clenching her fists in excitement. She turned to Danny. “Ah, you probably don’t know what their quirks are, though, huh?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He shook his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, Deku-- uh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Midoriya</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I mean-- he’s got super strength! Or something like that.” She paused, her eyebrows furrowing. “He’s never actually told me the official name of it. Eh, it’s just super strength. But it does really hurt him a lot if he uses it, it’s basically a glass cannon. And Tsu’s quirk is Frog! She’s got all the abilities of a frog.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, Danny had at least given himself the liberty of using the basics of his powers, the ones he always leaned into when he fought ghosts. So at the very least, he could walk through walls, disappear, and fly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We need to make a plan.” She glanced up at the building, mumbling something Danny could barely hear under his breath. “Fenton, what’s your quirk?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Um-- Ghost.” He forgot he had to give it a dumb name and his horrible naming skills came to haunt him. Literally. If he and Uraraka were to be teammates, he’s got no choice but to explain. “I can walk through stuff, disappear, and fly.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>He’s much more unique than the other guy. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wow! That’s so cool! Do you know Hagakure-chan by any chance?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Who?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, nevermind.” Uraraka giggled. “Mine’s Zero Gravity. Anything I can touch I can make weightless.” She looked at Danny, then at the building. “Deku is going to have a solid strategy for keeping the bomb safe for a while, but he doesn’t know what </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> quirk is, so they’re probably gonna play it pretty defensively.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Makes sense.” Danny interjected. He glanced at the building, and then at Uraraka, just like she had done moments before. A smirk formed on his face. “I have an idea.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midori-chan, you’re still mumbling.” Tsu interrupted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, am I? Sorry, I didn’t notice.” He and Uraraka had been the heroes in their first go-around of this exercise, so seeing it on the other end was interesting, but he had other things on his mind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Like how he and Tsu were about to go against a kid whose quirk they didn’t know. They didn’t know what it was, how long he’s had it, how much training he’s had with it, how--</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>still</span>
  </em>
  <span> mumbling.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“S-Sorry!” Izuku’s face was probably as red as a tomato at that point.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s okay. I just can’t understand you when you’re mumbling.” She said. “Playing it defensive is our best bet, how long do you think it’ll take for them to find us?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They hadn’t raced all the way up to the top floor, but they were sandwiched in the middle. Izuku remembered the layout of the building pretty well, even though some of his memory was still hazy from the first time he had fought in it against Kacchan cause </span>
  <span>he’d almost died </span>
  <span>he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> stressed. But there was a big floor a few down from the top that seemed pretty secure, and they made sure to empty out any big debris that Uraraka could grab ahold of and use against them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not that it would matter if they were just going to be sitting ducks, but hopefully they can hold it out and stall when the heroes come to try and stop them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was their plan. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fenton threw too many variables into their equation. He didn’t give much of his quirk other than </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’ll see</span>
  </em>
  <span> with a </span>
  <span>rather cute</span>
  <span> smirk in his introduction, and no one had found him at lunch to get him to talk more, so he was the hero team’s wild card. Hopefully it wasn’t anything like </span>
  <em>
    <span>Explosion</span>
  </em>
  <span> or </span>
  <em>
    <span>Half-Hot Half-Cold</span>
  </em>
  <span> that could take them out instantly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All they had to rely on was hope and stamina.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hero team, enter!”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Look like we’re starting, kero.” Tsu said. “You ready?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A-As I’ll ever be, I guess!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They were really just waiting for the heroes to come, weren’t they?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Out of the three of his friends, Danny didn’t come up with plans that often. It was more Sam or Tucker’s thing. Not because he was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>shoot first, ask questions later</span>
  </em>
  <span> kind of ghost, not because he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>dumb, </span>
  </em>
  <span>but because his friends were just smarter than him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tucker had been the one to suggest using his tablet to ward Skulker off in their first few fights with the hunter. Sam had been integral in taking down Ember and Desiree. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But when the idea flashed in Danny’s head, he couldn’t just </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> do it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Plus, like. He could cheese this exercise. He totally could cheese it, sneak up behind the heroes while invisible and intangible and floating and just swipe the bomb out from below their noses and they would be none the wiser. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But he didn’t want to cheese it. Even asking Uraraka, she didn’t want it cheesed either, even though she agreed it would be funny to see that just happen, she needed the training, too, which led to this idea.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You ready?” Uraraka gave him a big wink.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, he was liking </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> already. She wasn’t like the other girls at his school, she reminded him a bit more of Sam, but the goth attitude Sam had wasn’t present. Uraraka was more bubbly, but there was a bit of a mischievous side to her, too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Beam me up, scotty!” Danny nodded. Even though it was all an act. She gave him a high-five and he allowed himself to float up slowly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They had taken one of the rolls of capture tape and tied it around Danny’s waist. He was basically a balloon tied to Uraraka’s wrist, but it was the mental image of it that mattered most. Because why be </span>
  <em>
    <span>smart</span>
  </em>
  <span> when you can pretend something didn’t exist? He couldn’t help but smirk to himself as he slowly floated up past the floors, looking in the windows as they passed, looking for signs of the villain team they’re supposed to fight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Reconnaissance. He was a big reconnaissance balloon. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he floated up, up, up, he stopped at one floor. Not quite the top floor, but it was pretty high up, and even though the capture tape was pretty long, there wasn’t much left. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thankfully, they had found what they were looking for. He counted the floors quickly in his head-- third from the top of a twelve-story building, so ninth floor-- but it wasn’t long before he was noticed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He watched as Midoriya turned, slowly, and met Danny eye-to-eye, even though he was on the other side of the floor, but there it was, the bomb and everything. Midoriya yelled something to the girl and she turned, and they both landed in defensive positions.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Danny winked, blew a raspberry, tugged on the capture tape and let himself fall.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What floor?” Uraraka asked as he landed, slowing down his descent when he was out-of-sight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nine.” He replied, untying the capture tape and letting it wind itself back up. Pretty handy. If he could cover it like the Fenton ecto-line he could really get some use out of something like this at home. “They saw me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Please tell me you made a face at them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>bet</span>
  </em>
  <span> I did.” He held out his hand to Uraraka. “Ready?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>♠♠♠</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku was not expecting to see Fenton tethered to what looked like their capture tape float up to their window, but he got a chill down his spine and felt like someone was watching, and he wasn’t wrong about it. It doesn’t help that he tugged on the tape and fell.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(But he thought Uraraka struggled with lifting people? Unless that was Fenton’s quirk, or he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>that small</span>
  </em>
  <span>--?)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He and Tsu still fell into a defensive mode, and backed slowly into the bomb to protect the bomb.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They have nine floors to climb, so they’ll be a while, kero.” Tsu said his thoughts aloud. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They could only hope to stall, right? That little </span>
  <em>
    <span>show</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Fenton and Uraraka put on with the capture tape was good, it wasn’t expected and it still left Fenton’s quirk a mystery. He just hoped it wouldn’t be something that was strong against Tsu or they would both be screwed, because even though he managed to throw a punch at the USJ that didn’t cause himself damage doesn’t mean he trust himself to use OFA correctly now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a small… </span>
  <em>
    <span>Something. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Not an explosion, but it felt like something crashed on the floor below them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or something broke.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku gulped, and clenched his fists tighter. Tsu stepped forward, extending her tongue out like  a third arm, ready to strike when the door to the stairwell opened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A beat of silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then two.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then the door creaked open, slowly, but no one was there. It was just like a draft had come in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Uraraka came in running a few moments later, pieces of glass and a pipe floating around her. Tsu and Izuku had skipped a few floors to get rid of debris, and it looked like they had taken a pipe and smashed a window. Hopefully Uraraka would aim right and no one would need stitches.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There you are, you wicked villains!” Uraraka pointed her finger accusingly at their team. “Your time ends now!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All Might gave them a five-minute warning. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsu was about to say something, but Uraraka grabbed the pipe that was floating near her and charged at them, so they didn’t get a chance to react. Tsuyu hopped over the swing of pipe that Uraraka threw at her and used her tongue to strike at Uraraka, but she dodged as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku backed up slowly to the bomb. Fenton could be anywhere, doing </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and Izuku didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. Protecting the bomb would be his best bet, with Tsu taking care of Uraraka. It seemed like a pretty simple plan, one that Izuku had thought of similarities with his first day of foundational heroics, now that he thought about it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Except there was no Kacchan and no bloodlust, just a mysterious student whose quirk Izuku didn’t know about. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Uraraka feigned a swipe at Tsu, before an attack from the left ended up catching her off-guard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Except Uraraka was on her right.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Uraraka was--</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was a distraction, wasn’t she? God damn it, Izuku should’ve seen it coming!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tsu--” He felt a cold arm wrap around his mouth and muffle his yell. Something pulled at his wrist and then to the ground. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hero team wins!”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku opened his eyes and saw Fenton leaning against the bomb. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And there was a piece of capture tape wrapped around Izuku’s wrist.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Me: lol see y'all probably around Christmas<br/>Also me: *takes 1 melatonin and ends up writing 2 1/2 chapters to add to this fanfic*</p><p>Okay <i>now</i> I'm not gonna make any promises to update until around Christmas but writing fanfic is always the escape I use when I have to be at home but honestly? Who knows! Life is super wild right now personally and in the world, everything is so unpredictable. I hope y'all are staying safe out there, we're almost through 2020 I believe in us! </p><p>I wanna just say "oh dear this chapter is a bit filler-y" but also I really enjoy this filler and it just establishes a few more relationships, so... Yeah enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So, who was the MVP of this round?” </p><p>One of his classmates raised her hand-- she really needed a costume redesign, there was no way that outfit had any support, plus the amount of skin she showed wasn’t really safe, was it?-- and spoke immediately. “Fenton, most likely.”</p><p>“How so, Yaoyorozu?”</p><p>“Well.” She paused to take a breath. “Fenton kept his quirk a secret through most of the day already and had the advantage of surprise come this exercise, and used Uraraka’s quirk to their advantage to spy on the other team without giving it away… I think it’s safe to say <em> I’m </em>still stumped over what exactly his quirk is.”</p><p><em> Ha. </em> Win. They might’ve seen him disappear and reappear on the screens, but only All Might could hear them over the ear piece. And… All Might was one of the heroes who found him, so <em> he </em> knew what Danny’s ‘quirk’ was.</p><p>Keeping his new classmates stumped for this long was fun, but it was probably going to end now.</p><p>“Very astute observations, Yaoyorozu!” All Might gave her a thumb-s up, and she smiled warmly at the praise from her teacher. All Might turned to Danny. “Would you care to explain your quirk to the class now?”</p><p>Danny nodded. “It’s um… It’s called ‘ghost’.” A couple of his classmates <em> ooo’d </em>at it. Embarrassing. He wasn’t used to explaining his powers in front of this many people. “I can turn invisible, intangible, and fly. Like a ghost.” </p><p>And then came the barrage of questions. One stood out the most, though.</p><p>“Are you related to me?!” The invisible-girl asked. Uraraka had to stifle a laugh. Was this the Hagakure she had mentioned earlier.</p><p>“Um. Not that I know of.”</p><p>A few more questions were repeated, but All Might pushed them aside. He was really tall and loud. The spirit that floated around him was tall, too, and she looked like she had been strong during her life, but she was <em> dead </em>, so what will could she have on the living.</p><p>They locked eyes for a second. Danny quickly glanced elsewhere, but he could hear her go, <em> “...What the fuck?” </em></p><p>♠♠♠</p><p>Izuku knew that it was considered <em> rude </em> , sometimes, in other places in the world, to walk up to people and ask for details about their quirk, but he can’t help himself when he comes across someone with a really cool and interesting quirk, he’s just gotta <em> learn </em> about it.</p><p>“Huh?” Fenton blinked after Izuku asked <em> the question. </em> You know, <em> the </em> question. <em> Can I analyse your quirk? </em></p><p>“I, uh, I totally get it if it feels like I’m invading your privacy or whatever, but I really like to know a lot about quirks and yours is really cool and oh god I’m rambling again aren’t I--”</p><p>Fenton shook his head. “Oh, no, you’re good. No one’s ever asked me if they could, um, analyze my quirk before.” He feigned a smile. Not to make Izuku happy, but to break the awkward silence between them.</p><p>Class had gotten out already, and Izuku had a few minutes to wait before catching the train home. It seemed like Fenton was waiting for someone to pick him up. A host family?</p><p>“Go ahead, ask me whatever you want.”</p><p>“R-Really?” He’d told Uraraka and Iida to go on ahead because he wanted to ask Fenton a few questions about his quirk, had gotten a mini-lecture from Iida about how it could be rude in American culture and giggles from Uraraka, but he didn’t expect to get this <em> far </em> with it. “So it’s invisibility, intangibility, and flight, right?”</p><p>Fenton nodded.</p><p>“Those are all really strong on their own, your family must have amazing genetics for that!”</p><p>There was a...moment, Izuku noticed, where Fenton looked away at the mention of his family. Right, right, he can’t talk about that stuff because of legal stuff happening in America or whatever. </p><p>“Are you able to hold them all at once? And for how long?”</p><p>“I can if I concentrate enough, but it’s hard sometimes. I can be invisible and intangible at the same time, though.”</p><p>“And it takes your clothes with it?” He knew Hagakure was invisible <em> except </em> her clothes, and there was a third-year student he remembered from a previous sports festival that could phase through things but couldn’t keep his own clothes. Izuku liked to forget about seeing someone’s naked butt on camera, they at least had the decency to turn it away that first day.</p><p>“Anything I’m touching, so yeah.” Fenton smirked. “I can even take other people.”</p><p>Oh, that blew a fuse in Izuku’s head. There was no hesitation, no thought, and everything just dumped out of him. </p><p>“Is there a weight limit of what you’re allowed to take with you? Is it just invisibility or your other powers? How long do you think you can hold it with another person? Can you take multiple people--”</p><p>The noise of someone clearing their throat broke Izuku’s concentration, and he yelped, noticing Aizawa-sensei standing behind Fenton. How long had he been there?</p><p>“Don’t you have a train to catch, Midoriya?”</p><p>He glanced at his phone. He had a few extra minutes, but he probably <em> should </em>get going. </p><p>“Hey, wait.” Fenton took out his own phone, and created a contact. “Here, give me your phone number. You can ask me questions whenever you want about my quirk.”</p><p>“Really?” Izuku felt his eyes sparkle, and he quickly added his number and texted a message to it. “Thank you so much, Fenton! Uh, see you tomorrow! Bye, Aizawa-sensei!”</p><p>He didn’t know why his heart was beating this fast. It wasn’t the first time that someone had offered their phone number to him at U.A., but it still felt <em> weird </em> to get it now. Even though it's been a month at the school already. </p><p>♠♠♠</p><p>“He wasn’t bothering you, was he?” Aizawa asked as they watched Midoriya run off, his face as pink as the sky as the sun was beginning to set.</p><p>“No.” It was actually kind of… interesting. Danny could talk about his powers all he wanted with Sam and Tucker, and talking about it to a lot of people was weird and new and stressful, but being approached by Midoriya didn’t seem to have any malice in his intentions. He was just incredibly curious.</p><p>… And, he supposed, Danny would be curious, too, if a mysterious new student appeared in his class at a superhero high school. But he wouldn’t have the courage to come up to the student and ask them questions about their powers <em> like that </em>.</p><p>“Good.” Aizawa turned on his heel and Danny followed. “I have a few more papers to grade, but I don’t want you wandering off and getting into trouble.”</p><p><em> … Touche. </em>Danny thought to himself.</p><p>“It’ll probably only take another hour. You can stay in the teacher’s lounge while you wait. Get some homework done or scroll through on your phone, I don’t care, just don’t get into trouble.” Aizawa sighed as they got to the front door of the main building again. </p><p>His stomach growled. He had lunch, sure, but he was a growing <em> boy </em>, sue him! And he was also half-dead and he just needed to eat more. </p><p>“Is there a vending machine nearby?”</p><p>Aizawa dug through his pockets and dropped a few yen into his hand. “There’s one in the teacher’s lounge. Don’t tell any of your classmates, or they’ll be trying to sneak in for the rest of their years here and I <em> will </em> expel them.”</p><p>He couldn’t tell if Aizawa was joking or not, but he took the money anyway with a nervous laugh. “Thanks.”</p><p>“You’re my ward, it’s my job.” They stopped at the door to the teacher’s lounge, which the teacher opened and immediately groaned. </p><p>There were two others in the room. Danny recognized one of them-- the school’s principal Nezu-- and the other was a blond man all in leather. Oh, no, wait, it was his English teacher, Present Mic, but his hair was down. How much hair gel does that sort of hairstyle require, anyway?</p><p>“Hey, Shou!” The blond greeted. “I was wondering when I was gonna meet your little ward outside of class! How could you keep him from <em> me, </em> your <em> best friend?!” </em></p><p>Aizawa blinked.</p><p>“Hizashi, you’re not my friend.”</p><p>“Oh, you <em> wound </em>me, Shouta!” The man feigned being stabbed. </p><p>They were on a first-name basis. That was definitely friendship, but Danny shuffled awkwardly next to the man who was his definite permanent guardian now.</p><p>“What do you want?”</p><p>“Well.” Nezu, the principal, spoke up. Danny had only met him twice. Once, after he had fully recovered from his injuries when they found him, and the offer of being a ward of U.A. for protection; second, after passing the modified entrance exam they made for him to get into the heroics department to congratulate him. “It’s becoming more apparent that young Danny here is going to be permanently under your care, and because he is legally a ward of the school, we’ve just been working on a budget for him.”</p><p>“...And?”</p><p>“You’ll be given a monthly stipend for anything that you need to buy for him.” Nezu explained. “I’ve also given you a bit of a pay raise as a bonus.”</p><p>That seemed to interest the teacher. The corner of Aizawa’s mouth raised just a <em> small </em> bit.</p><p>“I’ll be sending it out for a deposit later tonight, and you’ll get an email with information of a separate bank account for Danny near the end of this week. There’s a little extra in this one, so maybe invest in some actual furniture instead of a futon?”</p><p>Danny smirked. He didn’t know how the bear-rat-mouse-thing <em> knew, </em>but the eye twitch from Aizawa gave away his irritation. Plus, the corner of his mouth dropped immediately. </p><p>“You have some papers left to grade, so I’ll leave you to it, Aizawa.” Nezu jumped down from the chair. Before leaving, he turned to Danny. “I heard about your performance today in your first Foundational Heroics from All Might. I can’t wait to see what sort of hero you become while you’re here, Danny.”</p><p>Hm. <em> Ominous </em>. </p><p>But Nezu was an interesting character. There was no way Danny could ever keep up with the creature’s intelligence, but Nezu reminded him of Clockwork, which… Was really nice, actually. </p><p>“<em> Maann </em>, I don’t know why Nezu asked me to help with the budget!” Present Mic said. “I’m an English teacher!” </p><p>Much better than the English teachers Danny has had in the past, at least.</p><p>Aizawa sighed, turned back to Danny, and then looked up at Present Mic. “I can trust you two won’t get into trouble when I’m grading?”</p><p>Present Mic spoke first. “No promises, Shou!”</p><p>Aizawa left without saying another word.</p><p>♠♠♠</p><p><b> <em>mini-might: </em> </b> hey guys!! we should add fenton to the jangle server!</p><p><b> <em>Uravity☆: </em> </b>does he even HAVE a jangle account?</p><p><b> <em>bigutairist: </em> </b>does anyone even have his phone number?</p><p><b> <em>mini-might: </em> </b>I got it earlier after school. I could text him and see if he wants to join?</p><p><b> <em>Uravity☆: </em> </b>wow deku u work fast ;)</p><p><b> <em>mini-might: </em> </b>well it was when I wanted to ask him about his quirk and then Aizawa-sensei interrupted but then he gave me his phone number and said to text him whenever </p><p><b> <em>Iida: </em> </b>Even though this chat can get chaotic in the hours we are supposed to be sleeping, since Fenton is our classmate it would be rude of us to not send out an invite to him to join if he so wishes!</p><p><b> <em>REDRIOT: </em> </b>send it midoriii!!! get him in here!!</p><p><b> <em>pikachu: </em> </b>more chaos more chaos more chaos</p><p><b> <em>Iida: </em> </b>It is presumptuous to assume that more chaos will be caused if one person joins the chat, is it not?</p><p><b> <em>Uravity☆: </em> </b>oh, iida, u sweet summer child, whose idea do you think it was to be the spy balloon?</p><p>♠♠♠</p><p>Danny wasn’t expecting a lot in his hour trapped in the teacher’s lounge. He’d gotten a text from Midoriya asking to join a Jangle server, if he had an account-- and after finding out it was this world’s equivalent of a Discord server he said he’d need to make an account but he’d be down-- and in the middle of creating an email to use for that, a shiver went down his spine and a puff of mist came out of his mouth.</p><p>Present Mic had left after Aizawa because of his radio show, but had made a point to leave the radio onto his station so Danny could listen in while he was chilling in the lounge, but it seemed like the universe had other plans for him.</p><p>Danny glanced up and his eyes met the spirit of the woman who was haunting All Might. He flinched at her gaze but didn’t look away this time, only glanced around to make sure he was alone.</p><p><em> “Dai-chan </em> was <em> right, you </em> can <em> see us.” </em>She mumbled to herself.</p><p>“I can hear you, too.” He said.</p><p>
  <em> “Wait-- shit, wait, I didn’t think this through that much… You understand me?” </em>
</p><p>“Clear as day.” He looked at the bag he pulled out from the vending machine as the phone loaded up the Jangle app. <em> “Can even speak it, if you’re more comfortable with that.” </em></p><p><em> “Holy shit, kid. You’re something else.” </em> The woman smiled and chuckled. <em> “But… What exactly are you?” </em></p><p>Danny paused, looking around the room again. The woman floated a little closer. <em> “Well, I’m kinda, sorta, half-dead…?” </em></p><p><em> “You’re </em> what <em> now?” </em></p><p>“It’s complicated.” He said, looking away. The room was clear, and with ghost activity at an all-time maximum, the security camera in the room probably wasn’t working that well, anyway. “You know about the Ghost Zone, right? Or, um. I think it goes by a different name, here.”</p><p>
  <em> “You mean the after?” </em>
</p><p>“Yes, that. You know how it connects things? Like timelines, alternate dimensions, different lives? Yeah. I got lost one day and… A few things are still a bit muddy, but I ended up here.”</p><p><em> “You still didn’t explain the half-dead thing, kid.” </em>The woman squinted her eyes at him.</p><p>Danny squinted his eyes back. “I don’t even have your name yet.”</p><p><em> “...Nana.” </em>She hesitated, but she eventually spilled it.</p><p>“You can call me Danny, then.” </p><p><em> “Alright, Danny… What are you? Half-dead? How does that even </em> work <em> ?” </em></p><p>“Well… I’d show you but…” He glanced at his watch. Aizawa should be done soon. “...Not enough time. But I’m walking between the worlds of the living and the dead, one foot in each.”</p><p>Of course he can’t remember that damn metaphor Clockwork gave him all those weeks ago when he had stumbled into the clocktower with a massive existential crisis.</p><p>But it was enough for Nana to understand. </p><p>
  <em> “You’re half-dead like Schrodinger’s cat?” </em>
</p><p>“Yes, that’s a much better metaphor.” Thank god someone else came up with it. He sucks at metaphors. And English classes. Present Mic was gonna have <em> fun </em> with him. “Look, um. I don’t know when Aizawa’s gonna come back, but is there any reason you’re haunting one of the teachers here? Any unfinished business I can help you with?”</p><p>The ghost looked torn and forlorn for a second. She sighed, shaking her head. <em> “Nothing for you to deal with, kiddo. I’m just waiting.” </em></p><p>“Ah. Okay.” He looked up at her. “If you ever need anything, though. I’m always here to listen. Dunno how much I can respond, but I can listen.”</p><p>Nana smiled. <em> “Thanks, kiddo.” </em></p><p>♠♠♠</p><p><b>Danny Fenton has joined </b> <b> <em>→ CLASS 1-(ch)A(os) </em> </b></p><p><b> <em>pikachu: </em> </b>one of us one of us</p><p><b> <em>PINKY!:</em> </b> one of US ONE OF US</p><p>
  <b>Danny Fenton has changed their nickname.</b>
</p><p><b> <em>mini-might: </em> </b>hey fenton!! feel free to mute us if you need to, it can get pretty wild at night</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president: </em> </b>i don’t have a consistent sleep schedule so its whatever </p><p><b> <em>Iida: </em> </b>Welcome to the group chat, Fenton! Though might I ask, why are you sad?</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president: </em> </b>wait does it exist here</p><p><b> <em>mini-might: </em> </b>....?</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president: </em> </b>oh it does thank god</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president:</em> </b> it’s only in english i cant find any translations but its an online comic about ghosts</p><p><b><em>sad ghost club president:</em></b> friend_guide_rule.png</p><p><b> <em>Iida: </em> </b>I am not as fluent in English as my brother is but I will do my best to translate!</p><p><b> <em>Uravity☆: </em> </b>aw omg the art is so cute </p><p><b> <em>Iida: </em> </b>I agree, Uraraka! It is definitely ‘cute’!</p><p><b> <em>REDRIOT: </em> </b>so manly…!</p><p><b> <em>Iida: </em> </b>On another note, Fenton, if you ever need to reach any of your classmates, feel free to drop a ‘ping’ in this chat or message them privately from here! Or exchange phone numbers, if you wish.</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president: </em> </b>will do</p><p><b> <em>pikachu: </em> </b>ok fenton, important question. how well-versed in memes are you?</p><p><b> <em>biguitarist:</em> </b> oh god not this again</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president: </em> </b>depends.</p><p><b> <em>pikachu: </em> </b>img2133.png</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president: </em> </b>hm. you raise me that and i raise u this.</p><p><b> <em>sad ghost club president: </em> </b>hgggl332.png</p><p><b> <em>biguitarist: </em> </b>oh god there’s Two of Them</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Kudos to anyone who gets Danny's true username. ur a true fan of my writing if u do</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hi i'm not dead</p></blockquote></div></div>
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